How to make a pillow from a placemat; the easiest DIY sewing project ever

Yuppers, I made a Placemat Pillow. I know what you are thinking, “Another blogger made yet another pillow from a placemat…”

It’s true. No excuses here. I’m going where no man too many men women have gone before. I’m about the 10 thousandth person to make a placemat pillow.

Hopefully my plethora of pictures and my awesome tutorial writing skills will make my Placemat Pillow more awesomespice than the rest of them.

For starters, I found this linen placemat at Target on clearance (do I ever buy anything at Target not on clearance?

First thing I did with this placemat was wash it, hung it out to dry, and ironed it.

I’d say {obviously} you can only make these pillows with fabric placemats that are double thick, but sometimes it’s not so {obvious} to others, so please, don’t buy a stack of plastic placemats. It is impossible to stuff with polyfill anything that is only one layer thick.

So, next up, after my placemat is all wershtd and ironed is to take a seam ripper and carefully rip out the seam on the bottom of the placemat. Don’t rip too big a hole though – just enough to stuff with polyfill.

See, the hole really isn’t that big.

Now take a bunch of this stuff and stuff it inside the pillow {I bought my polyfil at HobLob}.

I tried to fluff and pull apart each handful of polyfil before I stuffed it in the pillow.

Once you have a very fluffy pillow, take a needle and matching thread and carefully stitch your hole back up.

Easy Peasy.

Now you are done. OMG, this pillow was seriously the EASIEST pillow I’ve ever made. I’m not even sure I can say I “made” it because it was so easy and I hardly did anything to create this masterpiece.

I’m finally starting to get a small collection of pillows for my couch. I want a whole bunch of fun mismatched ones, but holy-camoly, pillows are NOT CHEAP! But my placemat one was! I think I spent about $4 total for the placemat (clearance) and polyfil (I still have half a bag left).

And that, my friends, is the 12,458th tutorial online teaching you how to create a placemat pillow. 😉

I love original ideas here at HoH. I would love to be creative and have every single post I make be a brand-new original idea. But like I was telling Beth the other day, I’m decorating my house for me. And if I see something online that I love and want to copy, I’m gonna copy it! Because a) it’s my house, and b) most people that come to my house will be seeing the idea for the first time anyway and will assume I made it up myself! Ha!

Now go make yourself a placemat pillow and post your link in my comments section so we can all enjoy your pillow too!

I bought some clearance napkins at Target a while back thinking THOSE would make cute pillows. Except I forgot that I don’t sew, not even enough to sew two napkins together. I’m going to find some snazzy placemats and try this instead. So cute! Thanks!

I LOVE the pillow/placemat! It makes me want to run to Target and hope that they have the same one. And I’m happy you posted even if it isn’t original. I haven’t been looking at crafty blogs for too terribly long, so I hadn’t seen this before. Thanks!

Holla for the cutest pillow on the planet! Seriously, this is what I love about the blog world…take what you learn from others blogs and apply it to fit in you world! That is why peeps put tutorials on right?! If someone copied something I did, I would be flattered (especially when they give credit where credit is due)!

Off to Target quick after I drop off my son at football practice to see if they have any placemats that will work for my house! You are so right, pillows are so expensive and if I can create some for $4, count me in! My couch is in need of an overhaul!

Ooh, super cute! I hate to admit it… I’ve seen several of the tutorials go up here and there, but I never really paid attention to any of them, but I love your tutorials in general, so I went through and read it, and it LOOKS SO EASY! I was always picturing everybody sewing two placemats together, and that didn’t really make sense to me… (Oh my, are those my blonde roots showing through again???)

Well, I love your placemat and I have to confess I never thought about making a pillow with a placemat. I must live under a rock or something. I have never seen a tut on one either!!! Sigh! I must get out more. Anywho…love yours and your instructions are fab!!!
Thanks
Hugs
SueAnn

GENIUS!!! First time I’ve seen this and its genius!! Thanks for posting and I too don’t care how many times its been up…..I’ve been wanting to update some extremely boring pillows for some time now and you have given me hope. Keep on doing what yer doing.

oh my gosh, you are a GENIUS!! why have i never seen this before…what a totally FABULOUS idea! i am so in love & now i will be completely obsessed with double thick placements…at least long enough to drive my hubby crazy…LOL! big hugs girl!

This is the first time I’ve seen this idea! I love it. I planned to make some of my own pillows, which involves… buying fabric, measuring, cutting, sewing, etc. I love a good one-step solution. Thanks for sharing!

I just started reading your blog about a month ago and love your with and personality. I too must have missed all the other online tutorials on pillow making but I am going to make some now too. I am going to Target tomorrow – and may look at pier 1 or kohls too!!! Thank you!!!!

I love, love, love this! I do not sew so this is perfect. I can thread a needle and sew a few stitches by hand. I have been wanting some new pillows in my living room but I don’t want to spend the money for them so this is a great way to do that.

I haven’t been reading home/decor blogs for all that long so this is the first I’ve seen this idea. I LOVE it! I loved it so much that I picked up a placemat last night while I was at Target and made myself one when I was watching TV last night! I had an old pillow that I didn’t want anymore so I stole the stuffing from there and it’s perfect! I don’t own a sewing machine so seeing an idea that just requires a small bit of hand stitching is perfect for me. Thanks so much for the inspiration!!! I can’t wait to finish it and put it in our newly low-cost redesigned basement.

Trackbacks

[…] Here is a close-up of the placemat pillow. I bought the placemat at JoAnn’s for $3.00 and stuffed it with batten. I saw this idea on House of Hepworth’s and have been wanting to do it for so long! For the tutorial, check it out here. […]

Welcome to House of Hepworths! This blog chronicles my journey turning a basic builder-grade house into our custom dream home. I do most of the work myself, and I share the process with you to hopefully inspire you to tackle projects in your home. I write about anything related to sprucing up our home, whether it be painting, crafting, or hanging moulding, or sewing drapes or duvets. I will occasionally throw in a recipe or two, but only if they are really yummy. To learn more about me, my family, and my blog, visit my "about" page. Check out additional top Pinterest projects.

HoH’s blog policy:

Bloggers/websites may NOT repost my blog content without my express permission. My tutorials belong exclusively on MY blog. They are my intellectual property. I've spent countless hours making these projects and I don’t want them living on someone else's site.

HOWEVER, linking to my project is perfectly fine and I encourage it! Those who link to a project of mine are welcome to take one or two photos and link each photo back to that specific post.